"This is the type of thing you see on news, but in the States," said Christopher Thorne, 30, a landscaper who was among the scores of mourners who visited near the crime scene Tuesday to pay respect to those killed in the worst mass killing incident Canada has seen in decades.

The day after Alek Minassian, 25, allegedly used a rented Ryder truck to mow down pedestrians along Toronto's iconic Yonge Street, Canadians are grieving and looking for answers to the explain the attack.

The suspect, who had a brief court appearance Tuesday, is charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. Minassian turned to a blunt killing method that Islamic State group, or ISIS, terror suspects have employed repeatedly in recent years.

ISIS backers have used trucks or vans to carry out mass casualty attacks on Bastille Day revelers on a crowded promenade in Nice, France; shoppers at a Christmas market in Berlin; a popular tourist area in Barcelona; on London Bridge in the United Kingdom; and on a busy bike path in New York. In 2015, a Somali refugee carried out a similar attack in the Canadian city of Edmonton using a rented U-Haul truck.

Police in Toronto say they are still trying to pin down a motive while expressing certainty that the suspect intentionally plowed into the victims. Authorities say they have yet to find any evidence tying the incident to international terrorism.

But as investigators continue to process the mile-long crime scene, Toronto residents are asking a simple question: Why?

Canada has endured mass casualty incidents before — a 25-year-old man killed 14 women and wounded others at a Montreal University in 1989, and 37 were killed in 1972 when three drunken men set fire to a nightclub where they were refused entry.

But Monday’s lunchtime attack is one of the most brazen in recent memory for the city of 2.6 million people with a relatively low violent crime rate. (Toronto, roughly the same size as Chicago, had 61 murders in 2017. Chicago had 650 murders last year.)

In the hours after the attack, video footage from witnesses emerged of police showing restraint in their confrontation with the suspect, who can be heard screaming at officers to shoot him in the head. After initially refusing, he surrendered to police and is in custody.

While American law enforcement analysts on U.S. cable networks expressed admiration for the police's conduct, some Torontonians found the officers’ response less remarkable.

"In the U.S., that guy would have been lit up," said Carly Musclow, 30, a resident who lives near the scene of the crime. "The police handled the situation as they should. I would call it being fair."

Jordan Singer, 40, who lives just a block from the part of Yonge Street where the police said the assailant began his killing spree, said he was still coming to grips with what happened.

About 15 minutes before the attack, Singer was shopping at a pharmacy near the crime scene. He intended to stop by his bank — just a few steps away from the pharmacy —but decided at the last moment that he wanted to go back to his apartment.

Minutes after he returned home, his phone was buzzing from friends and family who had heard early reports about the incident and called to check on him. He raced back to the scene and saw one of the victims lifeless near his bank.

"I’m kind of messed up," Singer said as he visited the memorial early Tuesday. "It’s shock and feeling numb."

A group of young men from the nearby Baitul Islam Mosque were also among the mourners who lingered at the memorial Tuesday morning.

In the midst of the candles, flowers and poster boards scrawled with condolence messages in English, Korean and Urdu, the young Muslim men paused and prayed for the dead, the injured, the victim’s families and their wounded city.

Imtiaz Ahmed, the imam who leads Baitul Islam Mosque, said that by choosing Yonge Street — which has the distinction of being Canada’s longest — the assailant carried out an attack on a swath of the city that reflects Toronto’s diversity perhaps better than any other.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

A women fights back tears at a memorial along Yonge Street on April 24, 2018, in Toronto, the day after a driver drove a van down sidewalks, striking and killing numerous pedestrians in his path.
Nathan Denette, The Canadian Press, via AP

A local Toronto muslim group holds up signs for love and courage at a makeshift memorial on Yonge St. on April 24, 2018 in Toronto. A suspect identified as Alek Minassian, 25, is in custody after a driver in a white rental van drove into multiple pedestrians, killing 10 and injuring more than a dozen others.
Cole Burston, Getty Images

Ozra Kenari, center, places flowers as she cries at a memorial for the victims along Yonge Street the day after a driver drove a van down sidewalks, striking pedestrians in his path, in Toronto on April 24, 2018.
Nathan Denette, The Canadian Press, via AP

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory speak to reporters after leaving flowers on April 24, 2018 at a makeshift memorial for victims in the van attack in Toronto, Ontario.
LARS HAGBERG, AFP/Getty Images

Jack Young leaves a notes on April 24, 2018, at a makeshift memorial for victims in the van attack in Toronto, Ontario.
A van driver killed 10 people when he plowed onto a busy Toronto sidewalk and was charged with murder Tuesday, as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged a rattled nation not to live in fear after the "senseless attack." Police said the suspect, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, was not known to them before Monday's carnage in Canada's most populous city, which also left 15 people injured.
LARS HAGBERG, AFP/Getty Images

A police officer steps out of the Toronto area home of Alek Minassian in Richmond Hill, Ont., on April 24, 2018. Minassian, accused of driving a van into pedestrians along a stretch of a busy Toronto street, has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.
Chris Young, The Canadian Press, via AP

A injured person is put into the back of an ambulance in Toronto after a van veered onto a sidewalk in a busy intersection crashing into a crowd of pedestrians on April 23, 2018. The van fled the scene and was later found along with the driver who was taken into custody, Canadian police said.
AARON VINCENT ELKAIM, The Canadian Press via AP